LUX Ultra Premium Apple Vodka

It’s been a while since I’ve written a liquor review and today, I’ve decided to try out LUX Ultra Premium Apple Vodka. The styling of this bottle is pretty obvious. Giant, bold navy blue letters that spell out “LUX” followed by a big green ‘X’ across the width of the bottle with smaller lettering that describe it as a vodka with natural flavors. Now, I don’t know about you but I’m not a big fan of vodka’s mostly because vodka doesn’t taste like anything unless you buy the really top shelf vodka’s, in which case it might have a hint of grain and slight sweetness to it, depending on the brand.

LUX Ultra Premium Vodka stuck out to me because number one, it’s cheap, and number two, I like apples. When you crack open a bottle of this, expect a strong whiff of really ripe green apples. The smell is actually pleasant at first but after the first whiff or two, you might start noticing a sickly sweet undertone afterward, which may or may not turn you off to this bottle of vodka with green apple flavorings. Me personally? I like sweets. So to me, this smells pretty normal. But for those who don’t like sweets or are neutral about sweets, you might find the smell of the apple particularly sickly sweet like Kikkoman’s Plum Wine sweet.

On first sip, I noticed the immediate burn on the tip of my tongue. Not a good sign. Almost immediately after, you’ll taste that signature apple sickly sweetness in your mouth and you might even ‘taste’ it in your nose because the smell permeates through the roof of your mouth all the way to your nose. Doesn’t sound very appetizing, does it? Yea, it’s because it’s not. I’m not entirely sure if this is how this bottle of vodka is supposed to taste. (Bear in mind, I’m drinking this almost a full day after I recovering from a cold in just the past week so that lingering cold sickness may be affecting my taste buds a bit). Nevertheless, even if my taste buds weren’t affected, that burning sensation as soon as the vodka hit my tongue won’t be any different. I still feel the burn in the mouth and down the gullet. Really not a good sign.

I turn the bottle around to the back label and notice that the fine print says that it is bottle by “The Legacy Distilling Company.” For those of you who don’t know, this is the same company that makes the Gran Legacy brand that you would only find at your local CVS. Go figure. Gran Legacy and LUX are apparently the same company but under a different brand name. And now that I think about it, I have tried the Gran Legacy Triple Distilled Vodka before and that one is definitely smoother than this LUX Ultra Premium Apple Vodka. There is nothing “ultra premium” about this vodka. If you pour this over ice, that will take away some of the unpleasant harshness of this vodka, namely the burning sensation and the sickly sweet smell of green apples. If you let the ice melt a bit, the vodka really mellows out and makes it somewhat easier to sip. And then if you mix this with some club soda, it definitely makes it easier to sip on.

This vodka seems to taste the best if you mix sparkling water with citrus fruit flavors rather than just plain club soda. I personally just bought the $0.99 bottle of tangerine lime flavored sparkling water and mixed it with this vodka. Pretty good, if I do say so myself. The sparkling water has aspartame (Splenda) in it so that definitely helps cut through the burning sensation.

Last but not least, you’ll feel that characteristic burning sensation as the vodka hits your intestines, whether you drank it straight, on the rocks, or mixed with club soda or sparkling water. For this LUX Ultra Premium Apple Vodka, I’d say that you’re better off drinking it as a cocktail rather than straight or on the rocks.